North Belfast Housing Spotlight

A groundbreaking political deal on Girdwood has been made public,

ending years of stalemate in North Belfast. There has always been a

vision for Girdwood to be a shared site with a variety of different

uses on it. What we now have is an greed plan in the way forward in

that regard. This site is a great opportunity for regeneration.

This's going to happen. There is all party agreement from North

Belfast. A vast piece of land that has been left untouched for the

past six years is to be transformed into a world-class community

development of business, culture and tourism. 27 acres of shared

space in an area devastated by some of the worse sectarian violence of

the Troubles. The Girdwood deal has been heralded as a political rye

triumph here. Evidence that the main parties in government have

finally left sectarian politics in the past and are now committed to

working together towards a shared future. That shared future does not

include shared housing. Homes built for Catholics and Protestants here

will be more than a quarter of a mile apart, on opposite ends of the

site. What's happening here has nothing to do with bringing

Protestants and Roman Catholics together. It an exercise where they

can door knock and the DUP can say to their people, we got house there

is. Sinn Fein can say, we got houses there. Housing has always

been the deal breaker on this site. So why has agreement been reached

now? The answer is money. The chance of �10 million European

grant for Girdwood is about to run out. There has been pressure to

come up with a deal ahead of the deadline. Tonight, we can reveal

that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, the body set up 41 years

ago, to ensure the fair allocation of houses here, has been completely

frozen out of the Girdwood deal. The housing executive has been one

of the great success stories of the last 40 years. Not least because it

embedded in our politics and public policy that housing needs informed

housing allocation. If that principle, or if that approach is

compromised, that should send out alarm bells. A former Chairman of

the Housing Executive say it is must be protected from political

interference. I have been disappointed by the lack of concern

there appears to be on the part of some political parties in defending

an organisation and a model which has been seen to work well in

Northern Ireland since its establishment in 1971. It's

absolutely fundamental to there being confidence in the delivery of

social housing in Northern Ireland that it should be based on need

rather than on some arcane territorial dispute. Yesterday,

politicians didn't want to talk about the number of houses they

have planned for the site. We can reveal that it falls far short of

the numbers recommended for Catholics in the area by the

Housing Executive, the decision raises difficult questions for

nationalist politician in the area, in particular Sinn Fein. I find it

inexplicable this a party like Sinn Fein, which talks about civil

rights and talk abouts equality and so on, is lying down on one of the

very basic issues that started the whole civil rights movement, which

was fair housing. The fact that Sinn Fein are agreing to a lot less

than what is needed, it is no not in their interest to do that,

indicates to me there is some deal The vast Girdwood site, on one of

the most bitterly contested peace lines in North Belfast. Six years

ago, the Ministry of Defence handed the former army barracks to the DSD,

the Department for Social Development, hoping a new use for

the land would transform an area plighted by sectarian conflict and

poverty. The plan has always been that the site would generate

millions of pounds and much-needed jobs for the area. We thought, this

is going to be a state-of-the-art development which will lift the

spirits and hopes of all the people of that part of the city. That was

the vision which lay behind. This we had seen what had happened down

by the Lagganside, the development changed that whole part of the city.

The Titanic quarter was being talked about. That was going to be

a transformtive development on the other side of the river. As part of

its shareded future initiative, the Stormont Executive insisted there

would be no funding for the scheme without agreement from both

communities. It would have to be a development as characterised as

being shared space, neutral space and people from both parties of the

community could buy into it. It would not be owned by one part of

the community to the exclusion of the other part of the community.

What prevented agreement for the last six years has been the issue

of housing. Catholics and Protestants in the area have

completely different housing needs. On the one side is a growing

Catholic community, in chronic need of new housing, but with little

available land to build on. On the other side, a declining Protestant

community that it says it is being left to decay and fears being

overrun on any site dominated by Catholics. Added to the mix,

decades of sectarian conflict in an area which has more interfaces than

anywhere else in Northern Ireland. It's not quite as easy as saying,

there is an empty bit of land, let's build houses there. There are

security issues, there are safety issues. There are strong senses of

allegiance to territory and to place. That is under pinned very

much by numerous security barriers, peace calls across the city which

make any form of housing, build, new build housing very difficult to

implement without, not only affecting the political geography,

but also the sectarian go geography. Sinn Fein is closing the gap on the

DUP majority in this constituency. There are fears that those in

desperate need of housing have been sacrificed in the battle for

political votes The Protestant population has been leaving North

Belfast for 30 years. The real issue is the constituency and the

votes. With the fact that they will not build houses for Catholics,

still the nationalist vote has increased. The nationalist

representation has increased. The fear of the unionist is that North

Belfast will become a Sinn Fein constituency. According to Housing

Executive figures, the clear majority of those who need to be

rehoused as a matter of urgent si of Belfast are from the nationalist.

Among them 60 young families. Connor and Elaine Matthews and

their children, all under ten, are one such family. They live in a two

up, two down house in the New Lodge have been on the waiting list for

two years. This is through into the kitchen? Yes. Not much space?

room at all. You have this tiny space at the back. Where do the

chin children play? They play in their room or the living room.

There is no other space for them to play. Shall we look at the

bedrooms? There is little prospect of the family being rehoused soon.

The house has single glaze tkwhraizing -- glazing and there

are signs of damp. In this first bedroom this is you and your

husband and Jennifer sleep. There is barely enough room to walk in

past this cot. There is not. Jennifer is ready to go into the

other room with the girls. Three girls in there? Yes. Why they need

a bigger house, in North Belfast 350 people are now living in hostel

accommodation, the majority in nation nags areas, while they wait

for a home of their own. James and his three-year-old twinnes had been

a hostel for almost two years. children were like nine months,

touching a year, so they were. When I went down to the Housing

Executive I said, we are on one couch. First I was in my brother's

house then we went to my mum's house. My mum had two bedrooms.

With the twins under a year, James assumed a host el -- hostle would

be a temporary arrangement. I was scared when I first came. I was

scared for the children. I really was. I didn't know who was going to

be around me. Maybe drug takers or alcohol people or, you know... I

didn't know what was going to be the score, like, when I went in

there. It was really frightening at first. I wasn't coming Ouattara my

front door just in case. After a while I noticed that people were OK.

In recent weeks, James has been allocated a home in a nearby

nationalist area. It will be more freedom, more space, yes. It's

fantastic. It really is. I was overjoyed when I got the letter

through, the offer through for the house. It was my last offer.I

looked at it and went, brilliant, absolutely fantastic. He is looking

forward to a new start for his children. In these streets, it's

not unusual for teenage brothers and sisters to grow up together

sharing one bedroom. I brought you round here because you can see the

density. Front doors are a few yards apart. There are no gardens.

These things were built above to stick in an extra bedroom. They are

on top of each other. It's frightening. This is as dense as it

gets. They are building mini blocks of flats in the middle of this.

That is the entire park for the kids in this area. We have no

ground that we can move to. Nowhere to build. No green spaces. We are

bursting at the seams. Housing executive figures show that over

90% of the new houses in North Belfast are needed by nationalist.

Nationalists hoped that need would be reflected in yesterday's

announcement, but actual housing figures were omitted. So far,

community representatives on both sides have not been given any

details of the deal. On this plan, there are two clearly marked

residential areas. One of those areas is here, on the nationalist

Antrim Road side of Girdwood a site which has capacity for 70 new

houses. Here, right at the other end of the site, just outside the

Girdwood boundary wall, on the unionist Clifton Park Avenue, a

site with a capacity for 30 new houses. Will there be enough

Protestants to fill those houses? Across the road from Girdwood,

Nelson McCausland, the Housing Minister and MLA for this area has

put in place a plan to build 45 new houses over the next three years in

the unionist Lower Oldpark as well as the refurbishment of 26 old

houses at a cost of �4 million. The Housing Executive figure show there

are three families in urgent need of housing in the Lower Oldpark.

His justification is that he is fulfill fulfilling that any deal

must go hand in hand with surrounding communities.

securing the regeneration of the deprived residential areas adjacent

to the site. There is a need to rebuild communities in that area. I

went to the Lower Oldpark and tried to develop the same for that area.

That was always to be consistent with the principle. It's the

principle that I think the vast majority will live up to. The

principle of housing need determines housing allocation. If

there is a genuine need for unionist housing that should be met.

If there is a greater genuine need for nationalist housing that should

be met. You cannot compromise those principles because they will

struggle for and are won and have served us well. Some suggest that

the Housing Minister's real commitment is to the repopulation

of the constituency with Protestant There is the politics of housing

which comes back to the symbolic need to maintain areas with

populations in them and also the political and voting demographics

of north Belfast. They come together which is the need for

putting houses in a world park and hoping you can get people to go in

and repopulate the airier and live there and stay there. You know the

area, do you think people will move back in? It does not had a strong

statement population four years. There is not a great demand at the

moment, that's not to say you could not manufacture a demand if the

houses come. The Housing Minister is now supporting an advertising

campaign to bring Protestants back to the low altar Park. Brochures

like this have been designed in a bid to persuade protestants on

waiting lists. -- to change their area of choice in order to help

repopulate here. It is looking at ways to repopulate the area, for

people to come back in, there is also a high waiting list in

surrounding areas on Shang call there. We are hoping to link into

that list to bring people back into the community. Senior officials

inside the Housing Executive have told us that while there is a

genuine need for some regeneration in the low old park it is hard to

justify it allocating so many new houses and an area where there is

so little me then that a time whether ministers budget has been

virtually halved. Brian Feeney, a historian and former SDLP

councillor in North Belfast, says is similar process failed during

the violence of the Troubles. He questions whether the housing

minister is correctly interpreting the commitment of the vision to

regeneration. 1986, when they were trying to build houses in almost

the same place, they could not gut -- get any candidates. There were

no takers. They could not anybody to come and live in houses -- get

anybody. The huge demand for housing is on the Catholic side and

building houses is not regeneration, it is naive to pretend to building

houses is regeneration. It is not just nationalists who doubt

Protestants will return to the area. Fred, a former Ulster Unionist

councillor and MLA agrees it is unlikely large numbers will come

back. This idea that somehow there will be a flood of Protestants

returning to North Belfast is nonsense. What is the sense in

banding and regenerating areas if people do not move back? There are

housing prices within Protestant communities and with in different

fields. Housing is a complicated issue. There are people living in

conditions that are not satisfying. You cannot subdivide a housing list

and a social need list into a party or voter list. You have to decide

who in this instance is most in need of a house. Who needs it more

than someone else? Sid says approving houses where there is no

proven need undermines the principle on which the housing

effective was established. should not be building houses where

there is not that proven need. One issue of concern is why is that

being done because resources are scarce? And if housing is not being

constructed in accordance with what is the proven strategic need

produced on a well established evidence based, that would be a

matter for examination because it would represent a nonsensical

expenditure of public funds. allocation of houses has historical

significance in Northern Ireland. Catholics have long protested over

discrimination. Fair distribution of public housing was one of the

key demands of the civil rights movement and led to the setting-up

of the current Northern Ireland Housing Executive. The hope was

that in establishing that the organisation we could bring

fairness to allocation of housing and also develop a more strategic

approach to the construction of housing in Northern Ireland. What

is the level of need in terms of the number of new homes required to

be constructed, then how do you allocate those homes? In 2011 did

then how he had approved plans to build 200 houses on dead wood, the

number recommended by the Housing Executive. Had these houses being

built and allocated on the basis of proven need? The vast majority

would have gone to Catholics. Four months later, when Nelson

McCausland became housing minister, he still the decision, citing the

stipulation of the Gurd would plan for the agreement of the Protestant

community next to the site. What is disturbing is that of all the

schemes in Northern Ireland in relation to housing this was the

only one remove from the programme by the minister and without

explanation. Many suspect his decision is based on political

prejudice, many suspect that, I hope not. However, on the face of

it the minister's decision is perverse. But the minister insisted

he was up holding the principle of a shared future for everyone in

north Belfast. However, it was the first time a housing minister here

had overturned a recommendation that a rising Executive involving

Did a Minister ever ignore the advice, or recommendation of the

Executive that had been made on objective proven need? No, the

position was that the government would establish the broad policy

which the expected the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to follow

but it was clearly recognised that the Northern Ireland Housing

Executive was the regional strategic housing authority,

therefore there was no role, no scope for any direct rule minister

to play any part in the question of determining need. There is no

question that the housing Executive and other bodies are under much

more pressure now than they wear under direct rule because under

direct rule there was a housing branch in the Northern Ireland

Office and that could always step in when pressure was put on by a

local MP, for example, but that is not happening any more because it

is local politicians who are carving up things to suit

themselves. But this is not a view shared by the DUP. It sees the

provision of housing in the areas as an essential part of

regenerating the Unionist community. Here in the low were called Park

the population has declined. Those left behind have found themselves

living behind boarded-up properties. Local residents insist new houses

are long overdue in an area that was decimated by the conflict and

then left to decay. What happened The area is now known as a Peace

Wall. There would have been a tax on individuals houses, this was at

the height of the Troubles. Families then started to move out,

they had Smalley and children and did not be faced with the danger.

Slowly but surely you would get one resident and then the houses

vandalised, not boarded up in time. The fear of the other community is

also are the heart of the dispute. For some Protestants the allocation

of a large number of houses to Catholics, albeit on proven need,

would be a threat to the survival of the community in the area. They

point to the near by a Torrens estate as an example of what they

believe could happen. 10 years ago the estate was a small Protestant

enclave surrounded by a growing nationalist population. The last a

distant family is left in 2004. Today it is predominantly Catholic.

Pete has worked with both communities here for many years.

One of the problems with a small population is it is hard to

reproduce itself because it becomes more elderly so there was a

demographic issue because of low birth rates. Some people did leave

because of intimidation, that is clear, some look for better housing

but there was intimidation, I do not think there was any doubt of

that. Four years later Torrance sparked a bitter debate.

departure of those folk was overseen by a Sinn Fein councillor

from north Belfast who was there as the workmen were put off the site

by Republicans when the work men attempted to put up a small fence

to protect those Protestant homes from serious and sustained

sectarian attack. I am disappointed Nelson McCausland sectarian eyes is

this issue. It is something that affects all the people in north

Belfast. For many the lesson of these areas is that they need of

families for homes cannot come before the consequences for

community relations of changing the population balance him bitterly

divided areas. However, the head of the equality commission is clear

about where the priority should live. A public body cannot height -

- hide behind promoting good relations in order to avoid a

quality duties. A unionist may feel alienated but the situation for us

would be in the allocation of houses anything other of need would

mean the housing allocated, whoever it is, would be in breach of their

statutory duty. Others argue cannot for the principle of equality ahead

of the reality of life on the ground in Northern Ireland. You can

only have proper air quality when you have built a society that is

fair, but has good relations. If people are afraid to live where

they want to live, that is not a quality. We understand the housing

deal being brokered is close to the DUP's desire to promote community

relations than for the desire of those who wish to see housing

allocated on the basis of proven need. Nevertheless, in the spirit

of something is better than nothing, nationalist parties appeared to

have signed up to the deal. But that has led to frustration among

some in the community. There is a general sense within the community

that 40 years plus after the advent of the civil rights movement that

they still feel they are being discriminated against. Unionist

politicians might congratulate themselves privately on a strategy

that is holding back some sort of green tide of republicanism,

nationalism and of Belfast. It is a narrow, short-term, dangerous

vision because it is entrenching sectarianism. What is to some

entrenching sectarianism is to some of reversing historic Unionist

decline. It is clear that since Nelson McCausland became housing

minister his interpretation of allocating houses has differed from

his predecessors. In the new large Carlisle area there are 165 cases

of urgent need amongst nationalists, the minister has allocated 35 new

homes here. In Cliftonville, where there are 170 cases, a has approved

just 18. -- he has approved. Of his interpretation of the proven need

real -- role in national areas has been frugal, has the almost

completely ignored it in other areas? The answer is used a special

provision to seek emergency of approval from Housing Executive for

the new houses in the lower old park on the basis of regeneration

without having to establish any proven need. There needs to be a

re-examination of the most urgent priority and that is the basis on

which expenditure decisions ought to be taken rather than some kind

of social engineering. Many nationalists are unhappy that the

principle of proven need is being disregarded but are very reluctant

We are extremely worried that if we don't agree to whatever is put in

front of us we will be seen to beholding back progress. That is

not the case. This is about fairness. This is about equality

and social justice. We are not saying who is going to Girdwood or

any side we identify. We are saying, there is a housing issue there, we

have the biggest waiting list in the North, we want to address it.

It doesn't mat is on that waiting list. The bottom line in North

Belfast is about voting and political geography. Over the last

two elections you have seen the Sinn Fein proportion in the

Westminster elections rise in comparison to the DUP vote. You

can't get away from the fact that housing is linked to politics.

Housing is linked to the power balance between Sinn Fein and the

DUP. Politicians say they are buying into a shared future in

North Belfast. The equality commission says it's keeping a

watching brief on how events unfold in relation to housing. What I can

say very simply is, equality isn't one for you, one for me. We have

never said that. If anyone feels they have been discriminated

against as a result of a an application of a policy, they would

need to take forward a complaint to the quality commission. We would

investigate it and if there were grounds we look into it. Last night,

the Housing Executive had not been officially informed about the

detail in the Girdwood deal. A figure within the Housing Executive

told Spotlight it was almost beyond belief that no-one was willing or

brave enough to put the plans in front of them. Officials have told

us they are extremely concerned about the Housing Minister's

decision to spend millions of pounds in an area where there is

not enough depanned. They say they could be disciplined if they speak

publicly. Both Sinn Fein and the DUP are vocal about their desire

for a shared future. They have failed to translate that vision

into people living together on Girdwood. John Dunlop says people

will only live together if politic particulars -- politicians lead the

way. We need to get from politicians is leadership. If

leadership is being shown from the top. If this kind of vision of a

shared future is being driven by people in leadership roles it will

have an effect on the ground. Fein is the same as the DUP rule.

They are in a difficult position. The enormity of that difficulty is

that neither of them actually believes in the share future.

Neither of them agrees on the definition of a shared future.

the DUP and Sinn Fein declined to take part in this programme. In

statements they both emphasised that the grid grid deal achieved

all part agreement. Sinn Fein said housing should be allocated on

basis of need and responsibility for implement that policy resting

with the Housing Executive. Nelson McCausland is about to announce the